THE HORSE -HYGIENE AND SANITARY CONDITIONS. 665 



warned me, but I was not humble enough to learn wisdom from 

 babes, and I lost my horse." He consoled himself that this sad 

 experience would save other horses from like ailments. 



The above experience and incident show that our manner 

 of feeding is fully as important as what we fed. Corn is the 

 handy and ever-present feed in the West, but it is deficient in 

 muscle-forming elements, and too rich in heat-formers to be used 

 as the only grain feed for horses and even pigs. 



A more wholesome and more economical ration is made by 

 mixing equal weight of oats and corn, and having them ground 

 together, and mixing sixteen pounds of this meal with a bushel 

 of cut hay or straw. We have found this mixture better than 

 corn or oats and long hay, and more economical. 



Mr. Stewart says : <; A better ration still is nine hundred 

 and fifty pounds of oats, nine hundred and fifty pounds of corn, 

 and one hundred pounds of flaxseed, all ground together." This 

 addition of flaxseed improves the ration in albumenoids and oil. 

 When corn is sixty cents and oats thirty cents per bushel, this 

 mixture insures a saving of about thirty-three per cent, and is 

 far more healthful than corn and hay. 



Accumulated Experience. These questions, of what to 

 feed, and how to feed, are of such vital importance in securing 

 health for our horses, that we do well to consider the methods 

 of those who have greatest interest in the problems of economy 

 and health, and most at stake in the solution of them. The 

 American Institute Farmer's Club appointed a committee to 

 make a thorough examination of the methdti of feeding in the 

 omnibus and railroad stables of New York City. The number 

 of horses kept is great, and the experience of the superintend- 

 ents, backed up by intelligence and fitness for their work, makes 

 the result of this investigation valuable. We give the sub- 

 stance of their report which bears on our subject. It is the 

 aim of the several companies to get all the work out of their 

 teams possible, consistent with health. 



The stage-horses consumed more than the railroad horses, 

 and the livery horses less than either. The stage-horses are 

 fed on cut hay and corn-meal, wet and mixed in the proportion 



